Death Note news articles

The kanji for Misa Amane should be quite straight-forward. But its not.

Both are reasonably common names in Japan. Enough that none would blink at encountering an individual bearing the surname Amane, though it's not one of the topmost family names. More a marginal, decently sized minority.

Amane is actually more often found as a first name, applicable for males and females alike.

They certainly wouldn't fain surprise at bumping into a Japanese lady or girl named Misa. There's a lot of them about!

All adding up to it being not beyond the realms of possibility for there to be real life females called Misa Amane dotted about Japan.

They must have loved it when Death Note came out! Living for every update, with ten years worth of practiced responses under their belt - tried and tested in readiness to meet all those quips about shinigami eyes, ditzy dorks and Genki Girls, Light Yagami, Death Notes and referring to oneself in the third person.

Are you one? Or do you know Misa Amane in real life?

Do please come and share with us your anecdotes! We're dying to know.

(As you can probably already tell, just by looking at the dates above our heads! Sorry. I'll see myself out.)

I strove hard to create names that seemed real, but could not exist in the real world. ~ Tsugumi Ohba, How to Read, p59

If the family name Amane and given names Misa AND Amane are fairly unremarkable - taken in isolation, beyond the tedium and taint of Death Note mass killing psychos - then what's so complicated about interpreting the meaning of the kanji for Misa Amane?

Everything. Misa Amane's kanji is not like all the rest.

Most frequently used kanji for Misa in Japan:(Translation: Beautiful Assistant)

Meaning Behind Misa Amane's Given Name According to Tsugumi Ohba

Word of God moment now, as the true translation of Death Note Misa's first name isn't mentioned in the manga, anime, movies nor anywhere else.

It's in the manual, of course.

Please open your books to page 60, for in the Beginning the Death Note Creator made the Shinigami Realm and human world, and named all the characters within. Then gave them kanji to spell and shape this new reality.

The Origin of Misa's NameIt was kind of random but I think it was from "kuromisa" [Black Mass]. It must have been based on something.~ Tsugumi Ohba, How to Think, Death Note 13: How to Read, p60

It's actually most blatantly seen in the spelling of Misa's self-referential nickname. The Second Kira always name-checks herself in the third person as Misa-Misa.

As it's rendered in katakana, there's no wriggle room for dissent here. It says Misa Misa and that's that. However, as Ohba already pointed out, 'misa' is the Japanese word for 'mass' in the Catholic liturgy meaning.

Opening up an interesting notion that Misa is really calling herself 'Mass Mass', or 'the blessing and the benediction'. In which the objectifying lack of a pronoun is quite correct.

At a really quite minor stretch, it could be dismissal, as in 'Ite, missa est' (Go, the congregation is dismissed) - the words which close a Catholic mass - and/or its implied action point thereon, 'Go be a missionary; you have your mission'.

And you thought she was just being cute and Genki Girl childlike! (Not yet ruled out.)

Translation of the Amane Kanji for Death Note's Misa Misa

However, it's not just her given name that's attached to strange kanji and multi-faceted katakana.

Misa's family name is equally like no kanji that's ever been associated with Amane prior to Death Note. Nor can it be translated the same.

The usual kanji for Amane as a surname can be multiple and quite diverse, but within a certain theme of numinous incantations and the aural divine, plus pathetic fallacy. The two most common Amane kanji are:

天音 meaning Heavenly Sound

雨音 meaning The Sound of Rain

For Misa Amane's family name the kanji is thus, and quite unlike the others:

弥

This rare usage of Amane kanji means something like 'increasingly' or 'more and more'. Though where Tsugumi Ohba's mind was there, who can tell? He never explained it, but left it to us.

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Our endeavour to have a Death Note gifts shop to match every character at the heart of our Month of... events finally made it in BEFORE the deadline by a fair few days.

But only because Lua took care of it, and did so with aplomb. Obrigado!

We have costumes, posters, eBay deals, figurines (some 1/6 life sized and really quite lovely), plus bags, body pillow and other miscellaneous goodies, with more coming in all the time. No really. Lua's on that case too.

Please do look in. All profits go towards the running of the site, though none came in to date!

Misa Misa portrait artist Robbuz (is not Kira) but is the founder of DeathNoteFansClub on DeviantART. She's been at its helm for seven years, welcoming fans with a global interest in Death Note and watching the group attract nearly 4,000 active members - including Death Note News, circa two seconds ago, if our request to join is approved - with another 3,000+ passively observing from the sidelines. Their page views are running into the hundreds of thousands. Busy place and vibrant community.

While back to the plot, Robbuz is the fantastically detailed digital artist behind the Misa Amane art reproduced with permission above. Called Crime Scene, it took her three hours to even begin. Much careful decision-making went into selecting the perfect outfit to be depicted in the portrait.

This Italian talent likes to work with colour, yet fittingly her Misa Misa portrait was part of a Death Note artwork series experimenting with darker tones and hues. Writing about Misa and the picture Crime Scene in particular, Robbuz wrote, 'I like how she's cheerful and lively, when she's definitely dead inside. Consider it, she sacrificed all her morality, her conscience, herself to be loved by someone who clearly just used her."

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Loud and over-emotional, Death Note's Misa-Misa appears not to have been blessed with much in the brain department.

Which is a shame, when she's up against the likes of Light, L and Kiyomi Takada and playing a deathly game as Second Kira. Yet she has one up on all of them, not to mention a splattering of NPA police officers and nearly all attendant Wammy House geniuses. Misa Amane survives. Moreover, she's never positively identified as Second Kira; let alone officially arrested, tried and punished for her crimes in mass murderer.

Which is more than Light Yagami manages.

Unlike both him and super-smart Teru Mikami, Misa contrives as well to be missing from the killing line-up in the Yellow Box Warehouse.

Though twice captured by Wammy detectives, and stalked by two others, she also sidesteps being murdered (directly or inadvertently) by them. Which again is more than can be said for top of her class Ms Grace herself, Kiyomi Takada, as well as usual suspects Yagami and Mikami, and their sometime stand-in Kyosuke Higuichi.

Alone of all the Kiras, Misa Amane gets to walk free at the end.

What happens next is all of her own doing, within her own control. Whether that's the dramatic suicide of the anime or the continuing on to world stardom as an actress and model, as per the live-action Death Note movies.

Not so stupid after all then.

Death Note's Misa Achieves Dividends When She Acts

Misa Amane with evidence to prove Higuichi is Kira

Whether its in retribution, career, love, favours or contribution to the Kira case, Misa Amane rarely fails to achieve any goal for which she reaches.

Nobody who ever attacked her survives long enough to gloat in their assault. Her street assailant is taken out by a Death God (Gelus); her family's murderer is initially sentenced through due legal process then killed by Kira while in prison; Soichiro Yagami threatens her with a gun - he doesn't survive a Mafia bullet later on in the tale; her torturous captor L and his carer Watari are both slaughtered by a second shinigami Rem, again on Misa's behalf; Mello and Matt both stalk her, and they are killed within weeks by Kira and/or Kira supporters; while Takada tries to take Misa's man and ends up incinerated in a lorry.

Even Light Yagami, who exploited her constantly for years, finishes the epic crawling in sobbing indignity upon the floor, crying out for Misa in his death throes.

Not all of those were of Misa's doing, nor even at her instigation, but she's certainly left with nobody alive who so much at looked at her with ill intent.

Then you get her career. As anyone who has ever set out with a dream of fame and fortune may attest, it's not easy to achieve stardom, yet Misa Amane is utterly in demand for both acting roles and modelling assignments

In the Death Note live-action movies, Misa Amane's fame is ever-growing. By the fourth, Death Note: Light Up the NEW World - to be released in October 2016 - she is at the top of her career, a Japanese idol with a firm presence in the entertainment industry; a famous name known worldwide as an actress.

During the week that Misa's introduced into Death Note manga and anime, she's on the cover of Eighteen Magazine, apparently a popular journal for the Japanese fashionatas (presumably the youthful ones).

Misa-Misa set out for fame and fortune, and got it. On her terms too, as her demands that she not kiss the main romantic male lead in one of her movies demonstrates.

In fact, as the corporate arc unfolds, Misa's work on that film shoot close by Yotsuba Tower certainly helps with the rescue of Matsuda, then later the capture of Yotsuba Kira himself.

And let's not forget that it was Misa acting unilaterally that managed to force a confession from Higuichi. That was her contribution to the Kira case. No fuss; simply done; back within an hour or two with the evidence that the men had been searching for months to secure.

Not bad for someone supposedly without any wit or two brain cells to rub together.

Nor was that the only moment wherein Misa Amane proves more resourceful and calmly able to get what she wants than all else within the Death Note plot-line.

How Clever Misa Amane Outwits Both L and Light in the Hunt for Kira

Misa Amane tracking down Light Yagami

Half a dozen chapters pass before L narrows down his hunt for Kira to a single major suspect - Light Yagami.

Misa Amane manages the same in about a week and that's only because a few days pass between the broadcast of her tapes and the proposed meeting in Otaka.

Even unto the moment of L's death and, in passing his legacy to his Wammy House successors, through to the end of Death Note - at the staging of the Yellow Box confrontation seven years on - none of the Wammys succeed in positively gaining a confession from Light that he was indeed Kira. Nor the smoking gun evidence that would convict him of the crimes enacted in that persona.

Misa Amane pulled that one off within the same aforementioned week.

Granted she had foreknowledge of the Death Note and the handy boon of shinigami eyes at her disposal; but L and the Wammys had the entire world's political, military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, plus experts in every field and academic discipline, ready to do their bidding, and/or the Mafia. L could also call upon criminal expertise in the shape of Aiber the Conman and Wedy the top cat burglar.

Misa Amane didn't have any of that. Therefore it was perhaps quid pro quo on such scores.

Moreover, Misa not only located Light, tracked him down to his home and got a confession to being Kira out of him, she did it all without a) Light finding out who she was and b) L knowing of her existence until she began repeatedly to be seen with Light himself.

In fact, we could go as far as to say it was only her association with Light Yagami which put Misa in the frame as Second Kira. But then again, she was only there because she insisted upon being Light's girlfriend and being openly known as such in public. The latter orchestrated entirely by Misa herself in a succession of surprise meetings outside his home, at his university and wherever else she could insert herself into his presence.

Outgunned utterly by his enforced beau, Light had neither choice nor say in the matter.

Overly Attached Girlfriend Misa Amane: Is She Really So Dependent on Light?

Stereotyped throughout the Death Note fandom as the overly dependent girlfriend from Hell, that description seems only partially correct under analysis.

Misa certainly goes after and gets what she wants in the romantic stakes. Moreover, from the onset, she'll use every manipulative trick in the book to keep her man and ensure his romantic availability is retained for herself alone.

Who can forget the chilling statement that she will kill any other woman that Light dates? Basically laying it on the line at their first meeting that he gets her or nobody. Those are her terms.

In this way - however exploitative, unfair and downright psychotic it is - Misa cannot easily be cast aside. She might present herself as utterly dependent upon Light, but in reality, it's the other way around. He cannot act in some quite key situations without her Shinigami eyes; or without the usage of her Death Note and the fact of her ownership of the same.

While ostensibly Light calls all the shots, Misa gets precisely what she requires at any given time.

She wants retribution for the killing of her family, she gets it; she wants to meet Kira, she engineers it; she demands to be Light Yagami's girlfriend, she gives him no choice in the matter; she wants him to move in with her, that occurs circa the beginning of the second arc; she decides it's time to get engaged, and Misa doesn't even bother to consult with Light on that one, she tells Kiyomi Takada first instead.

Financially, Misa was a woman of independent means for years before Light Yagami secured the Kira Task Force position to consider himself the same. She was the one with the money, the prestige, the social standing and the sole occupancy of an apartment. She bought her own furniture, clothes, make-up and every other possession with her own funds, including the phone and its network charges that she presents to Light and pays for on his behalf.

Even when Light gets a job and asks Misa to stop working as per social expectation, she could (and does in the Death Note movies) return to her career at any time.

Misa Amane as the Archetypal Anime Genki Girl

In most fan imaginings, Misa-Misa is Death Note's very energetic answer to that stalwart of anime character archetypes - the Genki Girl. She shouts, screams, rushes about, glomps, squees and generally acts like the average three year old on a profusion of E numbers. Or, indeed, E.

There's plenty of scenes to throw into the mix in support of this designation. Yet look more closely. Shouldn't that be every scene?

In reality, Misa seems to switch Genki Girl on or off, or applies attributes to a precise level, depending upon the situation and who's watching. She's like someone who's read all about Genki Girl and figured that she can pull it off, so goes for it whenever the persona will cover a multitude of personal sins and/or throw people off the scent of her actual intelligence.

Take for example her meeting the Yagami women, whilst visiting Light at home. There Misa is the epitome of maturity; a demure Japanese lady full of politeness and decorum, give or take the length of her skirt. Yet outside, alone with Light on another occasion, she glomps him with all the enthusiastic screaming passion of the Genki Girl personified, now that his mother isn't watching.

Nor does she bamboozle Yotsuba Kira Hidechi with a steady stream of relentless words. Those she chooses are articulate and leading, with adequate gaps in between for him to speak enough to condemn himself.

Meanwhile, there's absolutely nothing of the motormouth, highly animated and over-emotional Genki Girl in Misa when she's detained by L as suspected Second Kira. To be fair, she's also in a full-body straitjacket, so none of that excessively expressive movement is physically able to be on show.

Yet you get the impression it wouldn't be either.

Hidden Reserves of Strength in Misa-Misa

That prolonged scene in a straitjacket, effectively being tortured into submission by L, tells a lot about Misa Amane's true strength of character.

With his arms handcuffed behind his back, Light plays the game in full knowledge of his Kira-hood for a week, then gives that contextual understanding up. Within three days, he's pleading, begging, demanding to be set free, sure that he's not Kira and adamant that he's going to say so repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Misa Amane remains silent and strapped upright to a board, blind-folded, devoid of human contact beyond an electronic voice communicating through a speaker. Not a single word uttered in condemnation nor defense. Nothing whatever to make it worth her torturers' time in detaining her.

When she eventually does feel herself cracking, she finally does speak, but only to ask Rem to kill her. The words enigmatic without context to those listening on. The remainder of her days tortuously attached in that position in a state of near sensory deprivation would have been passed without knowledge of Kira nor her part in the Death Note killings. Yet she still doesn't say much nor beg as Light Yagami did.

Coming to the conclusion that she's been abducted as per her fame, Misa intelligently attempts to humanise herself and make a deal with her abductor.

L eventually has to let her go for the sake of nothing incriminating being divulged to prove her role as Second Kira, nor to use as evidence against Light. How many others could have withstood so much under torture? Most in that position would be agreeing, admitting or issuing confessions to all and sundry, just to make the torture stop.

Misa Amane: Worldly Wise and Self-Possessed of All her Assets and Skills

Nobody is suggesting for one instant that Death Note's Misa Amane is some unsung genius (though an interesting case might be made for that). However she certainly isn't the dim-witted, unaware character so many make her out to be.

She has drive, intelligence and self-knowledge enough to ensure that she gets what she wants, through a considered application of the attributes and tools in her personal arsenal. She can definitely identify goals, pinpoint way and devise strategies to achieve them, then action those tactics with usually astounding results.

Mostly Misa is fabulous at keeping herself under the radar by ensuring those around her think she's too stupid to understand much that is happening.

However, she proves time and again that she can read situations - and especially people - with a keen accuracy. She can be cute enough to sexually manipulate the men; childish enough to annoy or delight, but never be taken seriously enough for people not to scheme in her vicinity. She sees more than she ever lets on.

She can charm anyone, and uses that to great effect to get people waiting on her hand and foot.

However, when the occasion calls for it, Misa's intelligence shows all the above to be the veneer of an actress. Probably a psychopathic one at that, but certainly not the Genki Girl that she's studiously manufactured her self-image to be.

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Death Note's Misa Amane had to give up half of her remaining life span in order to see the future.

The actress who voiced her in the original Japanese anime - Aya Hirano - only has to go to sleep.

Misa-Misa's foreknowledge was limited solely to the Fated death dates of all humans within her view. A fact that she was usually due to change anyway. Meanwhile the precognitive scope of Aya, who played her, knows no limits.

It would seem that the seiyū wins this round of preternatural skill acquisition and application.

With many a fan in conversation and the occasional interviewer too, Aya Hirano has told how she was born with her psychic gift. An hereditary clairvoyancy shared by her mother.

Precognition (or intuition - her rendering in Japanese as 特技 予知 could be read in English as either) was even listed in early profiles of the actress as one of her skills, alongside playing the piano and calligraphy.

Aya Hirano and her mother have predictive dreams, which later transpire to play out in reality.

Not quite the vision supplied by shinigami eyes, but I'm sure that both ladies are very grateful for that, preferring their version of The Sight over that suffered by poor Misa Amane!

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By all accounts, Death Note is not a very old anime. Yet since its original run, much has changed.

Misa Amane’s capture was the result of a series of mistakes relating to VHS tapes, but such things are no longer regularly used in our modern world. Flip phones are no longer the dominant device and have instead been replaced with multi-function smartphones.

With that in mind, we’re going to examine how certain key plot elements relating to Misa would have been different were the story to have taken place around today. Would our female protagonist have been captured so quickly? Would modern technology have aided her escape? Perhaps events might have unfolded differently.

Storage Media

L exhibits Misa's VHS tape

As I said before, Misa’s mishaps began with her submission of four tapes to Sakura TV.

Here we would find the first large difference in story had it be cast a little later: VHS pretty much disappeared from use a few years after the show’s original airing.

A more contemporary telling of the story would have her submitting these videos through a different medium. These are some of the most likely candidates:

A CD/DVD recording

Files on a flash drive or SD card

Email (yet unlikely due to file size)

A cloud sharing service

Two possibilities completely remove the physical evidence discovered in the story: there are no finger prints on sent files, no ink or paper to link the notes and since the files could be sent from anywhere, train tickets would not serve as relevant evidence.

On the other hand, these types of media also leave behind a trail. L might have been able to trace Misa’s IP address from an email, or go to the next level and determine where and when the email address was created in the case of a fake email account.

The same is true of the file sharing. By checking where the files were uploaded from with the cooperation of the host company, L might have been able to deduce either where Misa’s apartment is (if sent from a PC) or her general locale if sent from a mobile device.

This is assuming Misa didn’t use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). She perhaps wouldn’t have hidden her IP address in this way, although if she had it would have inevitably led to some other clever discovery to further the plot (perhaps a method of payment tracking).

As for files, L may have been able to trace the date of creation and possibly even the device used to generate the video. Whether or not this information could help track her down is uncertain, but it’s much less specific than a postage stamp (one of the other pieces of evidence they discovered in her apartment).

Social Media: A Database of Targets

When Misa first established contact with Kira, it was because of her abilities (recall she couldn’t see his life span, but could see his name). But at the time of the show’s initial run, social media wasn’t yet very significant. Social media would have presented a very different story because of the sheer number of pictures people take and post online. Granted, these pictures aren’t always labeled or tagged.

This is where Misa’s power comes in. Just looking at the photos with her Shinigami eyes would no doubt have given her the ability to choose from as many victims as she pleased. This huge database would also allow her activities to be considerably more covert than Light’s (although he might have also had a social media page in a modern retelling).

Misa uses her Shinigami eyes to identify victims...

... and Kira too.

Whether or not Kira would have used social media is a difficult call. Given Light’s age, he probably would have had a page of some kind. It may even have stood in as the means for Misa discovering his identity simply through recommended friends and friends of friends.

Its unlikely social media would have had any significant impact on L. He doesn’t really come across as a character that would have a public profile, though he may have used it as a resource to track down his targets.

Smartphone Technology

Wire-tapping and text messages already existed in the early 2000s, but services like GPS were only just beginning to achieve popularity. Smartphones are very different. They can be used to pinpoint someone’s location within a few meters in some cases. They also communicate with WiFi.

All of these elements are likely to have contributed to an easier capture of Misa. With this information readily available to L and the investigation team, they would have tracked Misa down considerably faster. As a social character, she wouldn’t likely abandon her phone.

Modern cell phones can also be hacked to use their cameras to monitor the owner. Their microphones are also possible to hack with the right apps installed, which could have spelled the premature end for our heroine.

Misa's Ultimate Fate?

While I can’t imagine the plot points would be changed too much (for entertainment purposes), speculating on the realistic changes leaves me to conclude that Misa would probably have been captured and imprisoned considerably earlier than in the story’s original telling.

Yet there’s another consequence of this: Misa may not have had such a tragic end without the original series of events that followed. Her continued deeper involvement in Kira’s plots is what ultimately drove her to what we can only assume to be her suicide.

So what do you think? Would the changes in technology over the last decade have changed Misa’s situation? If you think so, tell us in the comments.

Bio: Cassie Phillips is a writer and blogger who likes to focus on entertainment topics (especially anime) and technology. She loves new tech and finds it very interesting to talk about these sorts of questions.

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Death Note cosplayer MolecularAgatha shares her Misa Amane for this dedicated Month of Second KiraPhotography by Mario Melendez at Universidad de Costa Rica, originally published on DeviantART.

Hailing from Costa Rica, MolecularAgatha's creativity as a cosplayer is absolutely astounding. She's a designer by vocation; a facet that tells in the attention to detail on display, throughout a great range of costumes created by and for herself. MolecularAgatha is a veteran cosplayer of many years standing.

So successful in fact that she's now gone professional - available as a cosmodel to show off costumes created by others too - with more information to be found about that on her Facebook profile page. A model with an element of the actress about her costumed roles? This makes MolecularAgatha practically a real life Misa-Misa, give or take the serial killing and shinigami eyes. I hope. We didn't actually check.

In addition to Death Note, MolecularAgatha appears to cosplay as anything and everything. Her DeviantART homepage alone has recent images covering genres in gaming, fashion, classic tales, movies, television and manga. She leaps from Princess Peach to Steampunk, Alice in Wonderland to Sailor Venus - and every picture looks exquisite; every costume fabulous.

If you've just come back from San Salvador Comic Con 2016, you might have seen her there on stage as Emma Frost or Link. If not, then there's always her online galleries to wander through and gape. In the meanwhile enjoy her Misa Misa cosplay, pictured above, and hopefully there will be more Death Note costumes added to her collections in the near future too.

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I'm afraid it's official - Kim Hasper has indicated that he will be unable to send us his responses to your questions.

It's been so many years since he voiced Light Yagami, he simply cannot return to the mindset and/or recall enough details necessary to address what you asked.

The German dub Death Note anime actor apologized for dropping out so late in the day.

Back in February 2106, during the inaugural Month of Kira event, Death Note News readers were given the chance to pose questions to him. Collected up and presented en masse, these jointly formed this promised interview.

In fairness, Kim Hasper accordingly received over one hundred queries. All duly translated as requested, but with some delay after personal issues suddenly - and understandably - took precedence for our translator, Jojo.

Another willing German speaker had to be sought quite quickly to tackle those questions still requiring re-interpretation from the English. In reality, more than one person stepped up, contributing translations as a team effort orchestrated by the amazingly multi-lingual Lua Cruz. (She also translated a portion of your questions into Spanish for Sergio Zamora!)

All's well again too with Jojo now - it was she who took the message from Kim Hasper that he'll sadly have to give this interview a miss for the above stated reasons. Also Jo who liaised with him offering further assistance, but unfortunately had to receive his apologies to pass on to you all.

Naturally we at Death Note News hope you won't be too disappointed at this news.

We are still expecting replies from Brad Swaile and Sergio Zamora; while our interview with Vincent Tong is already in the bag, not yet public only for want of some video editing expertise behind the scenes here. But coming. We promise that it's coming soon. Video editing software lessons are occurring.

With her role as Misa Amane looming, Margaret Qualley has signed up for another part to fill the gap before filming Death Note.

She has joined the cast of Sidney Hall, a movie currently being shot in New York City.

Starring Logan Lerman and Elle Fanning, its plot revolves around the eponymous Sidney Hall, author of a book about his own generation, who then disappears without a trace.

So a little like Light Yagami then! Who notably exhibited penmanship in a book too; the impactful contents of which could equally be read, in a fairly abstract way, as a commentary upon the world as he experienced it - rotten - and who also vanished and hasn't been seen since.

Margaret should be able to pick up some nice tips for her forthcoming performance as Misa Amane.

Meanwhile Margaret Qualley is one of the stars of another movie out right now, which also has some distinct Death Note links.

Ex-Death Note director Shane Black's The Nice Guys went on general release in the US on May 20th 2016. It's a neo-noir, crime/mystery comedy with buddy elements too; written by Anthony Bagarozzi, who was behind one of the earliest screenplay drafts for the US live-action Death Note movie. He still retains a credit for it, though Jeremy Slater has since reworked his script.

Margaret plays Amelia Kutner in their movie - a missing woman, who demands to remain missing and even hires a heavy to ensure that continues to be the case.

Unfortunately, Amelia's implicated in the reappearance of a dead woman, now more alive than her funeral suggests that she should be. Hence the sudden pursuit.

Finally, Margaret has the final season of The Leftovers to complete, then she'll be free to take on Misa Amane when filming begins in Vancouver, Canada, on June 22nd 2016.

Wonder if she ever fears becoming typecast...

Posted during

Death Note's anime adaptation ends with the suicide of Misa Amane, Second Kira and one of the most significant driving forces behind the whole broad story. Without her intervention, much original plot might never have happened, or been changed completely along a different course. Yet the manga never gave her that big dramatic send off.

She wasn't even witness at the grand finale clash between Light and Near. Her creator Tsugumi Ohba dumped his character in a hotel room and forgot about her, because he self-admittedly couldn't find 'a situation to fit her in'.

It was only by the reappraisal of the manual, in Death Note 13: How to Read, that the author seemed contrite about his choices. Ohba proffered the opinion that she probably committed suicide. Whilst also confirming that the widely believed interpretation (at the time) of the final manga scenes - that the Kira priestess was Misa reinvented as a cult leader honouring dead Light Yagami - was completely incorrect.

So why does Misa Amane commit suicide according to the mangaka mind that made her? Because someone 'like Matsuda' 'probably let it slip' that Light was dead. She had already long since stated - to L no less - that she couldn't contemplate living in a world without Light. It would be too dark.

Only now does the mangaka get the brainwave that Misa might have ended her own life. Recorded in the transcript of the interview complete with pauses denoting the hesitancy of Tsugumi Ohba as inspiration hits there and then; well after the manga chapters have completed their inaugural run of publication in Weekly Shonen Jump. He finishes weakly, 'something like that'.

It would probably be easier to accept Tsugumi Ohba's suggestion as canon, if he sounded more sure about it. But all those 'likes' and 'probablys' make it sound like he's making up stuff on the spot to answer a question and wriggle out of abandoning his character to a crowbarred plot ending. As a dutiful storyteller, he should have found the narrative that included her too.

Tetsuro Araki certainly did. At least the director of Death Note's anime met Misa Amane halfway, marrying up that maybe plot titbit inserted rather belatedly as a footnote in the manual by Ohba.

In the anime along, we get that hauntingly beautiful, though inherently creepy journey on a metro through the vibrancy of a Tokyo sunset, and the steady drifting gait across an equally red hued bridge caught against the same deep stained tapestry of a sky in the dying of the light.

Misa's haughty, sad song lightly tinkled in notes; sentiment indelibly sounded for all that, its cadence scarring cerebrally when you know what's coming.

Misa no Uta it's called, Misa's song. A bitter-sweet irony in that bardic device of our dangerous heroine able to sing her heart's own tune, walking to the beat of her own rhythm, even as she grasps her life losses and lack of control so keenly that she is journeying into self-slaughter.

The poetic juxtaposition of circumstance echoed in her visage and attire. Misa Amane has dressed carefully for her existence's final scene. The actress has manicured her nails, painting them purple; adorning two rings to match in gleaming purple and blue/green. Her make-up is applied to perfection. No random clump of mascara on a rogue eyelash, nor lipstick mostly wiped off before you've even left your own home station, as would happen in reality. Misa-Misa's cosmetic attention has left her face as a canvas covered in a glossy mask, like a doll staring flawless and porcelain back. Not helped by the deadening of all expression in her gaze.

Her clothing is just as carefully chosen and arranged about her person. Black and white dress, with matching headband, and great white ruffles arranged just so. Beneath that topmost article, her hair remains teased into shape, styled without a strand out of place, like every lock was cemented on. Her big, clumpy platform shoes mark the precision of her gait, keeping it of necessity slow, as if she apes the slow, striding pace of the funeral director at her own final send off.

There is something of the Geisha about her, though not a single visual artifice directly apes that of those traditional entertainers. But for the general unreality of the look; woman as walking art. A canvas shell without soul inside, to be adorned for the pleasure and artistry of the thing. Which isn't to paint a disservice to the actual Geisha, who were notably vital. Particularly those with their obi worn around the front.

Misa no Uta (Misa's Song) - English Lyrics

Misa's telling us that she's already gone. She's made herself outwardly pretty in order to smash the shell of self to smithereens. So unflinching and perfectly rendered that she appears not pretty at all, but abnormal. An animated marionette teetering towards the edge of the Uncanny Valley. We will not like what comes next. Fortunately for viewers of anime, Death Note doesn't show it. Implied amidst the final credits, we see the sky turn pink and arms outstretched, she leaps. More so in imagination than ink.

So was Tsugumi Ohba right? Was it for love of Light that Misa Amane makes this horrifically unromantic fatal plunge? The timing would imply so.

Misa-Misa suicides on St Valentine's Day 2011. Choosing February 14th on which to end her life has an obvious resonance for those viewing from the West. A day in which lovers are celebrated makes this unequivocally about Light Yagami. Fragmented sensibilities exposed therein, echoed in the lyrics that she intones so sweetly en route:

(English translation of Misa no Uta/Misa's Song)

Be mindful for God is watching.

In the dark alley, don't let go of my hand;for if you do I know that I'll be safe.Even if I'm far away and alone,I can be sure you will find me there. This I know.

You draw me close for a while, so quiet.You tell me everything.If I forget what you say, then you come to me,and tell me again. Yes, you tell me once again.

But what happens when I know it all?Then what should I do after that? What then?

However, we may be forgetting something quite important. Misa Amane is not Western. She is born and bred Japanese, and Valentine's Day isn't marked in precisely the same way there.

February 14th is the day when Japanese women and girls vie to press their hand-made tezukuri chocolate into the hands and hearts of favoured males. If accepted, the gifter can expect to be the recipient of a small token - usually a white ribbon - on March 14th, aka White Ribbon Day. Thereon all that remains is the marriage, mortgage, pets, 2.4 children and a lifetime in drudgery to the maintenance of the household. But first they have to get Christmas out of the way.

It's not Valentine's Day when all romance is sought, elicited and put on show in Japan. It's Christmas Day. This is not a Christian nation. No-one native to Tokyo is singing hymns to baby Jesus, whilst trying to square that with the pile of presents to be bought and wrapped for the kids and all out.

Instead, they're trying to snag a date. Christmas in Japan is for couples. It's the more obvious date for Misa's sunset dive into finality. Which should incur the supposition that this is less about Light than something else. Except for one thing.

Misa Amane was born on Xmas Day and died on Valentine's Day. She would see that as heartbreakingly romantic, when in reality it's just heartbreaking. Nevertheless, the interconnecting of life and death in those two dates does bespoke a love issue underlying her grisly end. Plus it's only a fortnight on from the first anniversary of her disappeared finance's supposed death. The sadness would naturally push up to peek at such flashpoint dates with that the biggest of all.

More imagery relating to her lost relationship with Light Yagami lies in digging deep into the fine detail of each frame moving her excruciatingly steady towards her final encounter with a far distant pavement. Putting it all together might entrail the overall picture a little more.

The last time Misa sees and talks to Light is whilst lodged within the Teito Hotel (Hotel Teito, trans. Imperial).

Prior to the Yellow Box showdown, Near arranges for Hal Lidner and Mogi to forcibly re-home Misa in a reasonably luxurious room there. While Mogi tells Light that he's there by chose, Misa blithely announces that she is not. Yet she makes no attempt to escape, despite earlier chapters making clear her resourcefulness in such situations. On the contrary to her spoken words, she seems quite pleased to be there. Though whether her joyfulness is approval expressed as glee in regard to the appointment of this expensive room or rests fully (or in part) upon another underlying cause, it's never made clear.

During the two day interim just prior, it might be assumed that Light and Misa have conversed via telephone or PC, though such is never show. Then Misa is nominally set free. However, she is given the usage and run of a penthouse suite in the same hotel, and Misa's exuberance now holds no bounds.

Just before Light leaves towards the Yellow Box Warehouse and his eventual, unforeseen death, he speaks with his hyper fiancée against over the telephone. Misa Misa is beside herself with delight; rolling like a toddler around the furnishings. In fairness, Light does tell her to stay put, while he confidently walks towards degradation and the flooring of his plans of living openly in divinity, recognized as such in all due numinous euphoria. Instead, it is Near's reality which is inserted upon the scene and Light sees eight years of careful elevation dissolve into Nothingness. Right on the brink, or so he thought, of his Godhead coming into fruition.

Bloodied, raving, insane and disappointed to a deep soul level, Light never once turns to Misa, safely ensconced in the luxury of Teito's top floor apartment. As far as she's concerned, he simply let her rot there, while he walked away and vanished unutterably from their common law marriage. Eight years plus of near constant cohabitation, de facto conjugation and sometime actual companionship just got thrown away.

Because, for some inexplicable reason Light's wife, mother and sister are never told of his demise.

The rationale is breezed over in the manga/anime as 'security' to safeguard the secrets of a highly classified case. Moreover one which is laced with international ramifications should news of Kira's illegal and ignominious kangaroo court death get out.

Not to mention local/national ones for the officers (and Near) involved, if their part in such proceedings was leaked to the press, public and Amnesty International. Still fiercely pro-Kira in those immediate aftermath months, Japan would be unlikely to support such vigilante dealings. Nor should be be forgotten that it disbanded one corrupt police force after World War II, then severely curtailed the liberties of its secondary, replacement force. There's a cultural twitch regarding abuse of due process by law enforcement officers to be evoked in Japan. Not a thing to be overlooked as YOLO.

Which means that for fear of the mob (in governments wide-world or on the street), Sayu, Sachiko and Misa have to suffer the unceasing starting and listening at any sound that might be their missing man come home. The inordinate cruelty of never knowing if he lies chained and tortured in some dark hole, or is freely wandering the Earth in rejection of their love.

There's a dark, unbending cruelty there, not lessened by the months its allowed to endure, and made considerably worse by the justifications ditched out by all concerned for such obdurate behaviour.

Meanwhile, whatever else may or may not feature in the mix, Misa's sense of self will be eroding with every passing day of waiting, watching, hoping, imagining, knowing that someone knows something and will let her languish like this in perpetuity - her worth and sanity deemed less than whatever reason underpins such relentlessness in silence.

Also adrift will be her societal connectivity (who can empathize amongst her neighbours and peers?); her yet to be mourned loss of context for a life shared with Light and hitherto built upon dreams, aspirations/goals and actual plans (how can she gain closure and remould a future, when he could walk back in at any moment, or not, and she will never know which until she watches the door and dies a little more inside each time it remains shut); and the deadening of that fundamentally Japanese concept of her personal 'ikigai' (reason to exist?).

All this alone may well account for Misa's descent into despair enough to jump from the roof of that skyscraper. But there's much more going on besides.

Some of it subtle, existing in the imagery alone. You see, Teito Hotel actually existed once. It was built, maintained and used by Allied Forces, foreign diplomats and Western business personnel in the post-WWII forcible reconstruction of Japan. Its architecture was distinctly American, as was the service, décor, amenities and portable goods to be found inside. By the order of General MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for/of the Allied Powers, no Japanese clientèle was permitted within. Teito served Western venture capitalists, merchant buyers and global market enterprise agents only.

There was a reason it was called the Imperial. In Japanese.

No wonder Misa was so stunned to be sitting in the Penthouse suite. She must have been sneaked past reception by Near or one of his American personnel, because no-one as Japanese as she could possibly have been there under normal circumstances. Despite it being in Japan.

When Hotel Teito was finally sold back to Japan - under private ownership subject to the highest bidder - in 1959, the first thing that occurred was the whole edifice being razed to the ground and swept cleanly away. Hotel Palace with its elegant Japanese designs in architecture, facilities and interiors now stands pointedly upon the spot.

Japan regained its sovereignty in its own domain. Misa Amane could not.

Memories gone, she will never know the context for the crushing aftermath and secrecy surrounding the Kira case, nor her involvement in it. Light gone, she will never know why, how, where or when he was disappeared, nor if its even possible for him to come back.

She can never grasp those essential foundation stones for her own continuance into the future, but must remain waiting in a sort of emotional and esoteric limbo.

While practical things remain a nightmare too.

Without proof that her long-time partner is or is not dead, there will be bills continuing to come for him and maybe some accounts inaccessible without his consent readily available.

All of this psychological upheaval would take its toll upon the most steadfast mind, but Misa has twice been an owner of a Death Note. Right there in the rules it states that users will feel despair and torment as a result of their writing within those pages. Misa killed her victims in the hundreds of thousands. It's safe to say she used more than one shinigami notebook and incurred such penalties upon her mentality from all. It doesn't matter than her memories of mass slaughter are all gone. This isn't a memory. It's an indelible mark in common to all human Death Note owners.

No amount of anti-depressants, Tai Chi sessions and mindfulness training are going to shift her from a despondency that she cannot trace to source. She kicked over the routes back there when she surrendered her notebook possession and shinigami eyes with it. Misa cannot even understand why. She'll never be able to fix it; nor can she know that.

There are other aspects too, seen in literal flashbacks - single frozen images flickering through her mind's eye, visible to the viewer too. This is Tetsuro Araki edging his bets in blatant disregard for the Death Note rules. Misa's memories have been washed clean, yet she still recalls numbers and names above people's heads.

She either retains the ability to view death data upon all things living now - in which case who wouldn't go mad or want to simply make it go away by ending the life of flesh and blood sustaining it? Or rogue, inexplicable snapshots of horrors have somehow stuck in her memory's cache. Clues towards knowing that she was once something or someone much more, but that's gone too with no way of knowing what it was nor how to reclaim it, should she want to.

Another blow to self-esteem and the wish towards self-preservation.

Or if Misa - more clever than half of her scenes would have her being, if the other half imply things more clearly - has worked it out enough to know what she was, and perhaps who Light Yagami was too, then she'd also understand she was on the losing team.

All humans beings want the haven of acceptance. To be within the cherubic sound of harmonious consensus all around in what you believe; and the cherished trills of affirmation from those concurring that you were right in things thought, said and done; the deep notes warming to a theme of being, totally and unshakably, a part of the great melody in the world about us, enjoying the overture resounding of, in and throughout our universe.

But Misa Amane sings alone. Her own song ineffectual, lost against a world that she can witness turning against Kira for the spectacle that's gone.

Besmirching his vision, shared by herself, with a growing number of voices raised against him in condemnation. Seeing all they'd accomplished in sacrifice and blood amounting to nothing now the new God is gone, and his dominion with him. Only the void remains now for Misa Amane, perceiving herself in isolation; visions lost in a paradigm of rising crime and wars reinstated; too making people telling her that she was wrong. Though not to her face. They didn't know, nor ever would, what she did or was.

And neither would she.

As Misa Amane's sole song finished, she stared into the abyss; and it stared back. The last Death Note credits rolled from view and Misa-Misa jumped.

Posted as Part of

We're a little late into our event now in posting to announce this Misa Amane fan club. But regular readers must have known it was coming - given that every other Death Note News monthly focus thus far has prompted a similar invitation to come and join in.

The topic titles might change from month to month, but the location does not.

We have Pinterest Community Boards dedicated to Death Note characters; fandom genres; differing adaptations; music; manga; anime; movies; cosplay; creators; academia; you name it and Sod's Law practically dictates that it'll be the only remaining aspect within the Death Note universe that none of us thought to build a board around.

Naturally, all of this includes a forum for Misa Amane fans or, if 'fan' seems too strange to speak about a genocidal maniac genki girl, those with an interest in sharing random, related things about Misa found on the internet may come too. We already have a lively Team Misa Misa posse pinning away and hundreds more enjoying the spectacle by merely following.

All you need do is follow the board. One of the Death Note News team will be along - hopefully shortly - in order to answer every alert with an invitation. Click yes or no, as your is your wont, then jump in and pin, pin, pin, or watch, if you chose the latter. Every community member may invite others too, so bring your mates along for the ride.

Posted as Part of

Reproduced with permission from an essay originally, and fully, published at DEATH NOTES: an online source for Death Note Analysis and Discussion(links at the end)

by Serria

I've been thinking about the character Misa Amane a lot recently.

When we first met her in Death Note, and for awhile after that I admit I thought she was a cute girl. Flawed, yes, and irritatingly obsessed with Light, but she was certainly charming.

However, at a certain point in the manga I just felt like she crossed the line of what makes a person the least bit decent, and I rather despised her. When I overcame personal emotions about it (still in the process, at least), I really tried to analyze her character.

And I've come up with a resolution: Misa Amane is a bigger villain than Light, and more ethically corrupt than Light, L, Near and Mello.

I should say now that I do not think that Misa is weak-willed or spineless. I've seen her portrayed that way all the time in fanfiction but I think she's quite the contrary. She's extremely assertive (almost frighteningly so!) and I would even go so far as to say that she's selfish. She's extremely "Misa wants, Misa gets" in how she acts - and she DOES end up getting a lot of what she wants. She pressures Light into a relationship by threatening to kill his other girls and of course uses Rem's love for her as a pawn too.

The most important thing to note, and we've all noticed it - Misa freely gives up her individuality for Light's sake. Everything she does, she does for him. It is true that Misa believes that she owes something to Kira for killing her parents' murderer. But she takes this above and beyond. Once she sees him she is "in love", and therefore I'm inclined to assume that she's acting out of lust as much as admiration. She idealizes him and throws away everything else. Therefore she's putting her own dignity and humanity aside in favor of a boy. She even said that she was okay with being a pawn if she was doing it for him.

And on that note, like the 4 Geniuses, she is manipulative to boot. She's not as smart as they are, but she's not completely stupid either. First off, she clearly takes advantage of Rem. Rem is as innocent as a Shinigami could be in unconditionally loving the girl. But she is constantly spurned by Misa. At the very start of Misa's introduction, Rem tells Misa how a Shinigami dies, after making her promise not to tell. In Misa's first meeting with Light, she reveals the secret. Misa uses Rem even when her memory is wiped, to kill a man (an innocent man, if I remember right) in order to convince Higuchi that she's Kira. Rem ends up dying for Misa, and killing Watari and L along with herself. Granted there is a time gap between this scene and then part 2, but it bothered me always that we never saw her mourning Rem at all.

She completely disregards her friends. At the very start, on her first meeting with Light, she offers to kill her friend who helped her make the Kira tapes. And I think she would have done it without a second glance. Later on, it royally pissed me off when she was perfectly alright with killing L, too. She didn't even think about what it meant, it was simply that she wanted to remember his name for Light.

I would also like to mention that it's possible that Misa is responsible for more deaths than Light. I'm not certain about this, but I believe that Misa was the one with ownership of a Death Note and killing people from the time L died to Light's death...

DEATH NOTES is an invaluable resource for those who like a bit of academia in their reading of the Death Note manga. Largely inactive now, its archives nevertheless contain a rich bounty of timeless essays written during the period when Death Note was first coming to the attention of international audiences and readers. The site's essayists emanate from varying disciplines within the academe, with less formal - sometimes downright flippant - pieces interspersed for flavour.

The excerpt above was republished here with permission from DEATH NOTES' editor Jennifer Fu.

Lara Sizemore Advises on Cosplaying Misa Amane from Death Note

Any anecdotes about your experiences cosplaying Misa?Dressed in a common Misa cosplay I get recognition especially from other Misa cosplayers.

However, dressed in her 'suicide dress' the only time I was recognized as Misa was during the Death Note panel I hosted.

How would you go about creating a costume for Misa Amane?Each of Misa's outfits are precise with many details. You have to look at each individually to truly figure them out.

That's not to say you can't buy generic Gothic clothing and a blonde wig to cosplay Misa. But if you were going the extra mile to be accurate and make the outfits, her clothing is specific to her and there are many details that people overlook - from skull brooches to corset work on the backs of her dresses.

What clothing and/or props do you feel are essential Misa costume items?Her necklaces and earrings. Misa wears her hair a few different ways (and in the manga her hair is fuller sometimes than others) but she always has specific jewelry.

Is there more to cosplaying Misa than the outfit? (Look/behaviour etc.)You don't necessarily HAVE to act like Misa in Misa cosplay, but it's always fun to put on that bubbly personality and leap after Light cosplayers at conventions.

For me cosplaying Misa is more about the accuracy of the costume but for others it is more just because they love the character and I've even heard a lot of people say that they cosplay Death Note characters because "it's simple" but those people usually just thrift for their costumes.

What's your professional opinion about ready-made Misa outfits, such as those in the Death Note News Cosplay Store? Any other pieces in there decent enough for a Misa-Misa cosplay? (Be honest!) I personally would never buy a Misa cosplay. I much prefer making her clothing and enjoy being able to say that I made it and it's accurate. Looking at the Death Note News store, the options are very nice and the most accurate I've seen for pre-made costumes.

last tips for anyone reading, who wishes to create their Misa cosplay from scratch?From scratch? Make sure you pay close attention to your reference photos. Pick out every detail before you sketch it out and don't forget about her jewelry.

Cosplayers!

Would you like to have a go at answering these questions on your own behalf?

If you are a Death Note cosplayer - or indeed a cosplayer per se - and you're willing to share your tips, thoughts and advice with the fandom, then visit our cosplayer's questionnaire page to fill in the form.

Posted as Part of

On a global scale, Misa-Misa has been dubbed, played and in some instances sung into life for the delight of Death Note audiences everywhere.

In honour of her monthly event on Death Note News, we have collected together the names of the twenty-one Misa Amane actresses from Death Note adaptations across the world. Who for you, amongst these ladies (and one gent), wore the face or spoke the voice of Misa the Second Kira?

Aya Hirano

Voice Actress(aka 平野 綾, Hirano Aya)- Death Note anime Japanese original- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God Japanese original- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors Japanese original

Shannon Chan-Kent

Voice Actress- Death Note anime English dub- Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God English dub- Death Note: Relight: L's Successors English dub